PM Narendra Modi to discuss social issues with 10,000 students during world's largest hackathon

The government is hoping to find solutions of nearly 600 social and economic issues through a 36-hour long hackathon involving 10,000 students in Delhi.Aman Sharma | ET Bureau | April 01, 2017, 10:23 IST

NEW DELHI: Can a software solution keep track. Can a software solution help monitor the condition of railway tracks and generate automatic warnings to prevent train derailments?

The government is hoping solutions to nearly 600 such issues will emerge from a 36-hour long, world’s largest hackathon of 10,000 students, which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The ‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’ is set to begin at 8 am on Saturday at 26 different locations and end at 8 pm on Sunday. The PM is expected to address the students through videoconference at 10 pm on Saturday.

“Each location will be handheld by one department or ministry of the Government of India as the selected groups will sit locked in for 36 hours continuously and complete digital solutions for the problem statements through programming to create a computer software or a mobile application,” a senior government official told ET.

The PM will take time out from his rigorous fasting and hectic schedule to address some of India’s sharpest young tech brains and speak on a range of issues from diplomacy to infrastructure to technology and spirituality, officials said.

The hackathon is being organised for “promoting innovation and outof-the-box thinking in young minds”, especially engineering students. The event is focused on “598 problems of social importance” as identified by 29 ministries and departments, officials said. As many as 1,266 teams of 10,000 participants from 28 states have been shortlisted to come up with digital solutions to the identified problems during the hackathon The railways ministry, for instance, flagged that condition of railway tracks needs to be monitored proactively for safety of train operations.

“A software solution which keeps track of the condition of the track and allied infrastructure and generates auto warning messages about the need of urgent maintenance can help in preventing untoward incidents,” an official said.

Online training has been given to the participating students by nearly 2,100 mentors appointed to guide the students.

“The software so created will be evaluated by judges drawn from ministries and industry experts, and the best solutions will be awarded Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 for the top three teams respectively,” an official said. “The awarded software will be used by the ministries or departments for improving their governance systems, if necessary, with suitable upgradation.”